Grain loading has stopped at United Grain's terminal at the Port of Vancouver, where longshore workers are picketing after being locked out last year by the terminal's owners. That's because earlier this month, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee ordered state highway patrol officers to stop providing security for government grain inspectors who examine outgoing grain shipments. Without the escorts, the inspectors have refused to cross the picket line.

Now, says United Grain spokesman Pat McCormick, the company's operations at the Port of Vancouver have "effectively been shut down."

The company says it was scheduled to ship 17 million bushels of grain from the terminal in August, and now is talking to customers about making alternate arrangements, including seeking waivers from the agricultural inspection process.

Officials from United Grain and the Port of Vancouver have pleaded with Inslee's office to restore the security escorts and offered to reimburse the state. But the governor's spokesperson said he doesn't plan to do so.

When Inslee detailed state troopers to provide security for inspectors more than eight months ago, "he let them know it was temporary," said Jaime Smith. The governor hoped the additional security would help the grain companies and the union negotiate more effectively. But after eight months it had become clear that providing the security detail "clearly wasn't productive," she said.

The longshore union said the state's decision to provide state police to provide security "was wrong from the start."

The longshore union consistently notes that United and Columbia are units of Japanese parent companies, and that the longshore union last year reached agreement with American-owned Temco. Louis Dreyfus is a French company.

A spokesman for the Washington Department of Agriculture, which sends inspectors to grain handling facilities to certify quality and quantity of shipments, said inspectors endured name-calling and foul language when they passed through the gate at United's terminal at the Port of Vancouver. Hector Castro said the state asked federal grain inspectors to take over the job, but the federal government declined to do so.

McCormick, the grain handlers' spokesman, said United was able to ship about 2 million bushels of grain since the state security detail ended July 6. In one case, the company got a waiver from the state inspection process, and in the other, it barged grain to another location where it was loaded on to a ship, he said.

But now, with harvest approaching, the company is concerned that its customers may turn elsewhere for their grain shipments, he said.

The union says it wants to return to work, too.

"The ILWU continues to negotiate with Mitsui-United Grain and Marubeni-Columbia Grain in order to reach a positive resolution," Sargent wrote.